


Quatre Winner and the Mystery of the Absconded Clothing

by lady_date



Series: Alpha, Alpha, Omega - Gundam Wing Alpha/Omega verse [1]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: A/B/O, Alpha!G-Boys, Clothes Stealing, Cuddling, Dubious Biology, M/M, Omega!Heero, Scenting, obvious plot is obvious, probable OOCness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14808864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_date/pseuds/lady_date
Summary: To say that there was a thief in the Preventers office would be more that a little redundant. There were several thieves in fact. But this particular thief was special. Because they they were ballsy. Not only because they were stealing things from within Preventer’s headquarters, but because of their choice of target was the former Gundam Pilots.





	Quatre Winner and the Mystery of the Absconded Clothing

**Author's Note:**

> Hey lovelies. It has been a painfully long time since I've written anything, especially for this fandom. So forgive me if anyone is too OOC or there are major gramatical mistakes. I kind wrote this is one go so it's unbetad

It was nearly the end of the day for Quatre. And so far it had been quiet. No major disasters, no looming threats to peace-time stability, no criminal cases that need the Preventer’s special attention to handle. Nothing to do but to finish filing his report on the attempted bank robbery from last month, then hopefully go home with no incident.

“For fucks sake! **MAXWELL**!”

Well so much for that.

Quatre didn’t even bother to look up from his monitor as his partner and pack mate charged through the office, irate and out for blood. He slid his chair closer to his desk to avoid being run over by the livid Chinese man. He just heaved a sigh and shook his head.

“Your little game has gone on for long enough!”

This would have been business as usual, just another of Duo’s office pranks, if it weren’t for the odd bought of thievery that had overtaken their section of the Preventer’s Office. For the last few weeks things had been disappearing from their lockers. It had started with odd, almost unnoticeable thing, an under shirt here, a sock there, a misplaced deodorant stick, things they did went through a fair few in a month. But by the beginning of this week, the thief had moved on to larger articles of clothing. Dress shirts and pants had disappeared from their lockers, with no signs of outside tampering or broken locks. The only one victims of this clothing bandit were, as far as Quatre knew, himself, Duo, and Wufei.

And judging by the confused look on Duo’s face and from his aura, it hadn’t been his doing.

The braided pilot looked up from the his laptop with half a donut in his mouth, clearly thrown off by Wufei’s tirade. Baffled violet eyes regarded him with a raised frown, catching his donut before it could hit the desk.

“Who’da whatty for how many cookies?”

“Don’t play dumb with me.” The shorter man stopped at the edge of Duo’s space. “This stupid prank you are pulling on us!” He growled and pushed further into Duo, crowding the other against his desk. Not one to back down for a challenge or a threat for long, Duo pushed right back, getting directly in the Wufei’s face.

“The fuck makes to think I had anything to do with this?” Duo’s snapped back tartly “Or did you forget that I’ve got shit missing too?”

“Oh like you hide you tacky shirts just to make your alibi credible.” Duo opening his mouth like he would rebuke the statement, only to pause more moment [1]. Wufei continued on like the other wasn’t about to speak. “Whatever the joke is, stealing my underwear is not funny Maxwell!”

Duo did a double take, he his shaking like he’s been smacked in the face. “Wait what?!”

News to Quatre. It wasn’t the first time something important had been taken, but it was the certainly the first time something that intimate had been taken from their lockers.

“You heard me! I don’t know what you’re trying to play at and I don’t care, but I want my damn underwear back.”  Any shock on Duo’s part dissipated and turned right back into anger.

“I didn’t steal your smelly boxers Wufei.” Quatre could tell Duo was getting pissed, the braided man rarely used their full names unless he was on edge.

“Who the hell else could have done it?! Quatre doesn’t have the lock picking skills and Barton doesn’t play that kind of prank.”

“How that fuck would you know. Trowa is more than capable of pulling off something like this. In fact he the only person here who hasn’t had any clothing stolen!”

“Not true.”

The quiet voice behind him had Quatre jumping out of his skin. He turned quick to see Trowa leaning against the door jam of their shared office, his face in a neutral mask.  The lean alpha's a ability to sneak under Quatre's senses, while an asset in field work, never failed to give the blonde a small heart attack every time Trowa got behind him. Never failed to make Trowa laugh either.

“Come again?” Wufei snarled. Right he's still angry.

“I said ‘not true’. Some of my clothes are gone as well.” He spoke just barely louder than before, but it was was the weight of the implication that silence the bickering pair. The quiet only lasted a few seconds before Wufei started accusing Duo again. The pair descending into a bickering and counter accusations.

Trowa had been hit too. This meant that it wasn’t random or isolated, it was targeted. Well more targeted.

Quatre leaned back into his chair and tried to think of a reason for the thefts. He let his eyes flick to the two alpha arguing on the other side of the room. It could have been like Wufei suggested, an elaborate prank. But Duo wouldn’t stoop so low as to steal Wufei’s work clothes and underwear. Not while they were at work anyway.

Quatre closed his eyes and tried to think. So what other possible reason was their to take personal items? To test them? Unlikely, given that, underwear included, almost all the articles taken had been easily replaceable, if in need of a good wash.

He was sure he could figure this out if he could only concentrate. But the aggression and anger from Duo and Wufei, combined with the ill ease and weariness from Trowa behind him, was making impossible for him to think clearly. And quite frankly the noise was getting on his nerves.

“ENOUGH.” He bark sharply. The other three alphas freezing in place.

It surprised all five pilots that, once puberty had finished her work with them, and they were no longer battle anxiety and stress brought on by near constant fighting, that Quatre had presented as an Alpha, a strong one at that. He had been sure with his more passive demeanor and empathy would skew him towards being an omega, a beta at most. But he was shocked when, while visiting Trowa at the circus, to find himself going into a mild rutt. But Trowa had been quick to pull him in his trailer, and let Quatre hold him and coat the taller boy in his scent. He’d gone on a scent spree really and disturbed more than few cirus workers (and one of the lions). He'd gone so far as to rub his smell into Wufei, Duo and Heero the moment he'd seen them the next day. Heero had mostly been confused, but accepted it calmly. Duo, newly presented alpha himself, relished having Quatre’s scent on him. At least Trowa had found his scent marking entertaining. Wufei seems almost insulted until Quatre had a agreed to let the asian scent him in return. The evening turned into a mutual-scent marking session, all five of them laying their scents on top of one another.  By the next morning if anything had gotten a whiff of them they would have smelled like an alpha orgy. Not that any of them minded. For them it just solidified something they had been feeling for some time. That they were a pack, a family.

Quatre’s scent and presence were particularly potent, could easily over power and masked the others’ if he let it. But he controlled it well, only letting it his control get away from him when he was about to go into a rutt or he was upset. And right now he was closer to upset. He breath in though his nose and pulled him back in. He only jumps a little a lean body pressed against the back of his chair and long fingers rested on the base of his neck, thumbs rubbing over the four bite marks. The faint smell of greenery and hay combined with vague sense of remorse let him know it was Trowa. It was matched by near identical waves guilt from Duo and Wufei.

“Sorry Quat.”

“Apologizes Quatre”

“Accepted.” He breathed out a heavily and nodded his head, leaning to the hands that were rubbing his neck.  He made a mental note make it up to the others for his slip up later. For now they needed to focus on the problem at hand. The petite blonde opened eyes and looks at his companions. “Lets think about this logically. We’ve all had clothing taken right?” He looked around at all three for confirming nods. “So, outside of Wufei’s underwear,” he gave Wufei an apologetic look, “what else has been taken?”

“My two of works shirts, a pair of socks, and two of my hair bands.” Wufei was the first to speak up.

“My undershirts, my damn black hat, and my Led Zeppelin shirt.”

“You actually brought that thing to work?”

“What? It’s tomorrow Friday.”

That statement gave Quatre pause. They were all familiar with Duo’s prized shirt. He’d found it in a bizarre antique record store two years ago and fallen in love with it. Heero had bought it for him as a sort-of birthday present and Duo was over the moon, wearing the black cotton shirt with pride for a week straight, even wearing it under his Preventer’s uniform. Every Friday since after that first week, Duo brought the shirt to work on Thursday and changed into it Friday afternoon towards the end of day. Quatre glance at his the date on his laptop. Duo was right, it was only Thursday. Which meant the shirt could only have gone missing after last friday.

The arab hummed and thought about his own missing articles. Like Duo he was missing undershirts, and like Wufei, some ssocks. His favorite pink sweater had also been amongst the absconded regalia. But Quatre was such a clothes horse, the sweater was only missed because it was a gift, which he rarely wore to work.

Quatre tilted his head to look up at Trowa. “What about you?” The Auburn haired man was silent for a minute as he cataloged the unaccounted for items in his head.

“My gym clothes, my work shirt, my turtle neck, my jeans, and my briefs were missing this morning.” For Trowa, that was a significant amount of clothing. He didn’t have much, to begin with. Even four year living with the other pilots he still had just above their bare necessities clothing wise. The only person with a more spartan wardrobe was Heero. Speaking of which….

“Does anyone know if Heero is missing anything?” Quatre let his head snap back down slowly to look at Duo and Wufei. He was met with puzzled expressions and side glanced.

Duo rubbed the back of his head. “Actually I haven’t heard him complain about missing anything. And he would have thrown a shit fit if someone had touched his stuff.” His face pulled into a hard frown, his brows tight.

“Where is he anyway?” Wufei looked around the office as his that would produce their missing friend. But there was no sign that the chocolate haired man had been in the office.

The room descended into quiet again as Quatre realized that he’d hadn’t seen him all day. Which was unusual and a little alarming. Heero, no matter how tired, busy, or irritated, never failed to make the rounds to check on them while they were at work. He was protective and caring once you get him outside of life or death mission.

“He was still in his room when I left that morning.” It was more a murmur to himself them to the other in the room, it had brought their attention back to Trowa. Looking up, Quatre could practically see the gears turning behind those green eyes despite an otherwise blank face. He watched them widen a fraction of an inch as a spark of understanding flashed from him. His long finger patted Quatre shoulders before he pulled away.

“I think I know what going, but I gotta talk to someone first. I’ll meet you out front after work.” With nothing more the a press of lips to the top of Quatre’s head, Trowa disappeared down the hall towards the elevator.

Quatre turn his attention back to Duo and Wufei. Duo at least had the decency to pull a face and shrug. Wufei only shook his head and let his shoulders sag, all the anger gone and replace with confusion and curiosity.

Quatre look up to the clock on the a wall and groaned. That little detour aside, they still hand another hour left before they could officially clock out for the night. With a look a suffering he pushed himself upright stared at his screen. He could at the very least, make the pretense of getting work done.  

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well other wasting an hour of his life staring at the tail end of a very simple report, the only thing Quatre had managed was worry. But true was Trowa was true to his word, the tall alpha waiting for them out front for them with a promise that all would be explained when they got home. What ever suspicions the European had, they had clearly been confirmed. Though Quatre didn’t know what to make of the light in his visible eye or the warmth that seemed to vibrate from him.

It had been was a short, but tense drive out of Copenhagen to their home. But as Trowa didn’t say a word as he rode in the passenger seat of Quatre’s car, Wufei and Duo following close behind in another. It wasn’t always practical for all five of them to travel together, so they all had their own mode of transportation. Just one of the reason it wasn’t too surprising that none of them has seen Heero that morning. He more often than the others, found alternative modes to and from work. But not seeing the other all day was still a concern, especially to Quatre.

Pulling into the drive of the seven bedroom house (or the mini mansion as Duo was fond of calling it), was a harried affair. The minute he stepped out of Wufei’s sedan, Duo was bombarding Trowa with what felt like a million questions. Questions that Quatre very much wanted the answer to himself. Instead of answering the ‘who’, ‘what’s and ‘why’s, Trowa just quietly quietly pressed a finger to his own lips and unlocks the door punching in security code with ease that only came with repetition.

The house was peaceful and still. Noir, Cloak and Dagger[2] were silently curled beside one window in the living room, taking the last rays of sunlight. The house was spacious (it had to be to accommodate five grown men), slowly filling with artifacts of the life they were building for themselves together, but none of their missing clothing was in sight, and there was hide nor hair of their fifth anywhere in the living space.

Wufei growled load in his throat, having clearly lost what little patients he’d had left. Not that Quatre blamed him.

“Barton-”

Trowa shushed him against with a pointed look. “Ssh! Smell the air.” As if trying to lead by example he took a deep breath through his nose and hummed, clearly pleased by whatever it was he smelled.

With little hesitation Quatre took in a deep breath and almost bowled over by the overwhelming heavy smell. He placed a hand on the wall to steady himself. It seemed to cover everything in the house, filling the space a pungent perfume. And it certainly hadn’t been there when they’d left for work that morning. He followed his nose, only distantly aware that the other behind him where doing the same. The scent had him wondering through the house, from the kitchen and living room, passed the rec room and direct to one of the bedrooms. It was stronger here than anywhere else. He took another deep lung full as he tried to make out what it was.

Sweet definitely, but not flowery, more like cocoa powder or dark chocolate, with a musky, earthy undertone. Not that kind of smell you’d expect to find in a house full of alphas. But then again, **not** everyone in the house **was** an alpha.

Trowa and Wufei presented as alphas prior to Operation Meteor. Duo had presented during the Eve Wars, and Quatre had presented after the Mariamaia Rebellion. Heero hadn't presented a secondary gender. It wasn’t unheard of, Beta’s were common, but they had taken bets that Heero would present as an alpha. He certainly had the stubborn streak of one. But two years later, nothing had changed. At eighteen Heero officially registered as a beta. They could only think to attribute it to a quirk of biology or the result of Heero’s intense training. But if the smell coming from the bedroom was any indication, they had been very wrong about Heero’s beta status

Trowa leaned past him and twisted open the door and moved inside. It was his room that the four of them had crowded outside it judging by the sparse decoration. Quatre followed the other’s long graceful strides inside an towards his closet on the far side of the room. As Quatre stumble towards the closet doors, Duo and Wufei pressed again his back, Trowa once again pressed a finger to his lips to keep them quiet. He urge them to backup a little, which they did, before pulling one accordion door open as quietly as possible.

There curled up in the bottom of Trowa’s closet, and laying on the rest of Trowa’s wardrobe, was Heero, nuzzling his face sleepily into Wufei’s pilfered underwear. Scattered around him, or covering him were all the missing clothing, a quarter of Quatre’s closet, half of both Duo and Wufei’s, the living room comforter they all used, and at least one pillow from every room in the house. He his face was relaxed in a deep sleep, a half smile tugging at the corners of hips. Physically, he didn’t look any different, but as close as they all were to him, they could tell he was the source of new smell in the house. Heero had presented... almost five years after he should have.

Quatre forced his eyes away from the heart warming sight to look at Trowa and mouth ‘How?’.  The banged alpha jerked his head towards the living room and closed the closet door as quietly as he’s opened it. Quatre exchanged looks with Wufei and Duo over his shoulder both nodding before vacating the room as silent as possible.

Once they were all out of the room they collectively let out a breath and flopped in the living room, Wufei on the love seat beside Quatre while Duo stretched out on the full couch and Trowa took the armchair. None of the furniture matched, but it was all comfortable so they mostly didn’t care (Wufei and Quatre cared, but they were overruled and outnumbered).  They all sat still for solid minute as they processed what they had just learned.

This new development definitely solved the puzzle of where their clothes had gone, but did raised a few big questions for Quatre. The first being why Heero had presented so late in life. It was rare for a second gender to present passed the age of fifteen, stress and injury not withstanding. But if someone didn’t present by age eighteen you were they weren't going to, and were officially listed as a beta. It was unheard of for someone to present at almost twenty years old. But Heero had.

The second, and probably more pressing question his mind was, what did this change? On the surface, nothing really. And being an omega didn’t make Heero any less effective. They worked with several. Noin for example was one, and she always handled herself in a fight regardless of how others saw her. His body was still as powerful as ever (he'd fireman carried Quatre out of a firefight during their last mission together a month ago, so no doubts about Heero's strength.) So no lack of confidence in his skill. 

It didn't change anything on a deeper lever either, if he were honest with himself. They were still a family, still a pack. So there was no loss of affection. He still loved Heero as much as the others, and he was sure once the shock wore off they’d all feel the same. So no change there. The change in smell could play havoc with the pack dynamics. A healthy fertile omega could get fired going and fights started. Or it could just as easily keep things as a low simmer they were now. They didn't fight amongst themselves, content to share each other's company during their rutts.  Also, as protective he was sure they would want to be, Heero was not one to take being coddled and shielded well. He still could easily take them out if he was pushed to it. Only Trowa and Wufei pushed spared with him regularly, and when it came to sparing with Heero, they ended in a draw more times than they either man won against him. So again not much changed, just some adjustments that, in the grand scheme of things, were rather minor.

He looked Wufei, his brow was furrowed, occasionally twitching as he seemed to come to the same conclusions Quatre had. He met the dark eyes when they flicked to him. He responded be resting his hand on Wufei’s arm and giving it a squeeze. A smile came inched it way to his lips before he looked at Duo.

Duo turned to look at their tallest pack mate and finally asked what they’d been wondering since they were in the office.

“So how did you figure it out?” The blunt question was enough to pull Trowa from what ever thoughts he’d been having as snapped his head up to look at him.

“Hm? Oh, It was his smell.”

That… that actually made sense now that Quatre thought about. For as strong as Quatre’s scent was, the only reason he knew it was that way, was because he saw and felt the reaction he pulled from those around him. Smell in general were mostly muted for him. He could tell his partners’ smells, but it was more a communal, group smell, a smell that was distinct from those were outside their pack. But what he, as an individual, smelled like was a mystery to him. Duo and Wufei’s individual aromas where vague to him only strong when they were especially emotional, and Trowa’s was just barely detectable. Heero’s smell, well his old smell anyway, had always been light to him.

To Trowa however, it was completely different. Their perfumes where unique signatures, they all smelled like ‘pack’ but not all in the same way and could change depending on their moods. Quatre recalled asking him, once, what they all smelled like. According to Trowa, Duo smelled like coffee, grease and metal work. Wufei carried an air of spice, tea, and old paper around himself. Quatre apparently smell of palm oil, dates and desert wind. Heero, at the time, smell like a soap with a little cocoa butter in it. And while their sense of smell wasn’t as strong as Trowa’s, Duo and Wufei could confirm smelling something similar (though the couldn’t agree on what Trowa smelled like).

Heero only shrugged and said he couldn’t really smell anything. Quatre had assumed Heero was nose blind like he was.

“The chocolate smell coming off him had been getting stronger, and when I thought about it, it lined up with the timing of things going missing. The smell was intensely strong this morning.”

Duo blinked slowly. “Huh...I just thought Heero he just nicked one of Q-Ball’s bath bombs or run out of soap without telling someone… again.” Heero was a notorious soup thief when he was too lazy to go buy more of his own, especially Quatre's luxury scented soaps. 

He got a soft chuckle in reply. “Not this time.”

“And who was it you needed to talk to after you left us?”

“Sally, I need to confirm some omega behaviors with her. Presenting omegas want to surround themselves with scents that make them feel safe, hence the clothes stealing.” Trowa snorted and rested an elbow on the arm of the chair. The innocent explanation did a lot to soothe Quatre’s frazzled nerves. So it wasn’t a rapid change. Still sudden, but it wasn't completely out of nowhere. He let himself relax into the love seat leaning into Wufei a little. 

Wufei snorted. “She say anything else?”

“Well, she suspected he in an omega since she first examined him. She theorized that the stresses of repeated space travel and severe damage he sustained battle did slow his development. All that compounded with the constantly shifting loyalty during the war, he just might not have felt safe enough to present when he was supposed to. She’d just been waiting for the other shoe to drop from the sound of things.”

“Did she plan on telling us at all?” 

At this Trowa shook his. “Can’t say. She still believes in a doctor/patient confidentiality, and I think she only told me because I had worked it out for myself.”

"Sound the the crazy women." Wufei may respected Sally as a doctor, and did see her as a friend, but that didn’t stop him being snarky at or about her.

“Does Heero know?”

“Heero-’I’m-going-to-follow-my-instincts-blindly-even-if-it-kills-me’- Yuy?” Duo raised a brow at Quatre. Okay he had a point with that. Heero had been known to follow his own instincts and reasoning with little outside input. It worked out... about 90 percent of the time, even if Heero himself didn't know why it worked.

“What’s going to get me killed?”

Speak of the devil. They all turned to door to see a blurry eye Heero standing in the entryway. He was wear on of Duo’s undershirt and a pair of Trowa's gym shorts, he had Wufei’s pillow tucked close to his chest and face and his hair bands around his visible wrist and Quatre’s goggles perched on his head. Their comforter was hanging off his head and following behind him like a haphazard bridal train. He look ridiculous, and comfy all at once.   

Quatre let himself drink in the sight, seeing Heero cover in the their belongings did something to that primal part of him. The part that had him covering his friends with his smell. He felt the other's reactions with out even having to focus. They were a mix of fond bemusement and the same primitive pleasure that Quatre was feeling from his fellow alphas. Heero... Heero was odd mix of content and irritated, but not at anyone in particular.

The irritation, Quatre realized, came from his stiff movement as he made his way to Trowa’s armchair and planting himself in the taller man’s lap. Transition was a shock to the body, and no amount conditioning ever prepared you for the ceasing of muscles that occurred when the change happened. Quatre as been a wreck in Trowa's trailer after his rutt, hadn't wanted to move for an entire day afterwards. He could only feel a portion the cramping and aching Heero was feeling second hand. He had a feeling that it was only through sheer force of will Heero was moving right now.

Catching the comforter in his free hand, Heero pulled the it up around him like it was the middle of December and not the end of May. This look make more entertaining but Heero’s position as ‘living furnace’ amongst the Gundam pilots.

“How ya feelin’ Hee-chan?” Duo giggle from the couch. He’d shifted so that his his head was hanging over the armrest.

“Like shit.”

The pulled a chuckle from Trowa, a snort from Wufei and an out right bark of laughter from Duo. Heero just let the laugh roll around him and settle back into cushions. He looked around around at laugh alpha and shrugged, burying his face in Wufei’s pillow before tilting it to lean into Trowa’s neck.

The lack of jealousy he felt from from Duo and Wufei was all the confirmation he needed to know that they would be just fine. Even with Trowa’s hand clearly rubbing Heero’s side under the blanket didn’t raising anything more than peace at the knowledge their pack mate felt safe and happy with them. It was bubbling up in his own chest and poured from the others.

Wufei’s thumb up rubbed bite marks Duo and Heero had left on the right side of Quatre neck, similar to the ones Trowa and Wufei left on the opposite side.  He let himself be pulled into his side, resting his head rest against another pair of bite marks on Wufei’s neck. He smiled with the knowledge that the other three same marks gracing their necks as well. They were a family, had been for almost four years. The claiming marks were a recent addition, something they had only agreed upon three months prior. When they finally realized that no, none of them were going to leave, and they loved between the five them openly and easily.

Quatre idoly wondered, as Wufei nuzzles the side of his head and Duo moved to the couch to cuddle into Quatre’s open side, if the mark had been the final thing Heero’s body needed to know that he was safe, that he would be care for. That he would be okay. He’d probably never know. For now he was content to let it be and to cuddle with his mates.

“Hey Trowa….” A sleep rumble came from the blanket in Trowa’s lap.

“Yes Heero?”

“Anyone ever tell you, you smell like grass?”

Quatre laughed between two barks of “That’s the smell!”

**Author's Note:**

> [1] Duo will so hide his own clothes to better prank Wufei later.
> 
> [2] The cats were gifts from Relena. Cloak and Dagger are pair of Bengal kittens, while Noir is a Snowshoe and is an official therapy animal.
> 
> I hope that the scent thing made sense. Scent and aura are kinda of intertwined, and a person can have a meassure of control over how much of themselves they put out. Also the idea that outside of family/pack recognizing different people's smell isn't particularly important until an indiviual presents as an alpha, beta, or omega. Quatre's scent is pretty overpowering a lot of the time and his empathy makes up for his lack of pheromone sensitivity. For Trowa being able to tell an alpha from a beta or an omega was a matter of survival, so he's got a sharp nose. 
> 
> The reason then they can smell Heero so strongly now is because a he'd finally full set in his second gender, and if you are around someone all day, you don't always notice the change in their personal smell.
> 
> I kinda want to expand on the nature of their pack bond in another fic, but we'll see.


End file.
